The Road Home
by Caitd-85
Summary: A promotion at work throws Rose into a whole new adventure. Post Doomsday. Spoilers for Torchwood. The Doctor makes an appearance.
1. Onwards and Upwards

AN: Well it had to be done. I was watching Billie Piper on Jonathan Ross the other day and she was talking about Torchwood and Doctor Who, how she missed it and how she'd definitely go back if she was asked and I started thinking. What if she was asked? How could it be done? And so, in all my wonderings, the idea for this story was born. It had to be written (and lets be honest – writing this was far more fun than that IT assignment I've got due tomorrow!) So here it is. Good or bad, tell me what you think…..

Disclaimer: I own nothing….

Chapter 1/5

Chapter One – Onwards and Upwards

Rose Tyler kicked off her shoes under the desk and sighed. It was Thursday. Just one more day of work and she could have the whole weekend off. 2 days of doing nothing except sleeping and lounging round watching the TV. Her Mum and Dad were taking her little brother to her grandparents for the weekend so she would have the whole house to herself. She intended to make the most of the peace and quiet.

It had been over three years since that fateful day. 3 years, 3 months and 2 days, or if she wanted to be more precise, 3 years, 3 months, 1 day, 23 hours and 18 minutes, since she had last seen The Doctor. It was strange; so much had changed in that time. Everyone seemed to have moved on. Her Mum and Pete were married and had 2 year old Jamie keeping them busy and Mickey and Jake had both moved on and were now working for an international branch of Torchwood somewhere in the Far East.

Rose herself had done well. She'd gotten herself a job working for Torchwood and had fast worked her way up through the ranks from being a tea-girl to being a division head. Her superiors had been amazed by all that she knew and had been eager to use that knowledge. Anything that no-one else understood was passed on to Rose for her to look at. There were some things which she didn't have a clue about but there were many occasions where she recognised objects from her travels with The Doctor and could tell people what they were dealing with.

Somehow though, despite all this, Rose still felt out of place in this world. There were times when she would sit up all night just staring out of the window, her feet itching to be back out there exploring. Sitting still was something she found so hard to do now. Her work at Torchwood helped somewhat but it wasn't the same as being out there and seeing things for herself. At the end of the day she missed The Doctor and she missed their lifestyle. Yes, she loved her parents, she loved her baby brother and she loved Mickey and Jake – her two surrogate brothers – but she knew that if ever she had the choice she would leave them here and go back to her old life. None of them needed her any more; they all had their own lives in the present. But Rose was still, at least partly, living in the past.

She was just tidying up her desk, getting ready to head home for the night, when her boss stuck his head around the door.

"Can I have a quick chat with you Rose?" He asked her cheerily.

Rose just nodded. She liked her boss well enough. In his mid 30s Director Chris Jones reminded her somewhat of Father Christmas. He always had a smile on his face, never a bad word to say about any one on the pay roll and was very generous with handing out pay bonuses. His philosophy was that 'A happy workplace is a healthy workplace' and he went out of his way to ensure that all of his staff were content in their jobs. He took a hands on approach to managing, preferring to get stuck in with whatever was going on than sit back and watch.

Slipping through the door Chris sat himself in the chair on the other side of Rose's desk. Rose relaxed back into her own seat waiting to find out what her boss wanted to talk about.

"Rose, how much do you know about our other regional offices?" Chris asked her.

Rose thought for a second. She knew there were other offices, everyone did, but she didn't know much about them.

"Not much to be honest Sir. Why do you ask?" She replied eventually

Chris smiled again. "How many times do I need to tell you Rose, there's no need to call me 'Sir'? 'Chris' is fine." Rose just grinned at him apologetically, "And the reason I ask is because I've got a proposition to make." He paused for a second giving Rose's curiosity time to heighten.

"What is it Si…Chris?" She asked eventually, remembering at the last minute what he'd just said about calling him 'Sir'

"How do you fancy a change of scenery?" He asked her eventually. "The Cardiff branch needs a new number one and I think you're perfect for the job."

Rose looked at him in shock for a few seconds. Of all the things that had flitted through her mind when he'd told her he had a proposition this was not something she had thought of. She had always assumed that they'd want to keep her here in London where she could carry on identifying things for them. It never occurred to her that she may be able to go elsewhere. But did she want to? She didn't even need to think about that one. She'd not left London since she arrived in this universe. Maybe a change of scenery would help alleviate some of her itching to travel again. It may do her good.

Slowly the shock on her face became a grin. "How can I say no to an offer like that?" She asked him.

Chris grinned at her. "Great!" He said before producing an envelope and handing it to her. "This is all the information you'll need. There are directions to the office along with security information and all the background you need on the team on a disk in there. There's also an address for and the key to an apartment not far from the office which is all yours for as long as you stay with Torchwood."

Rose nodded and took the envelope from him. "What's the catch then?" She asked him, "This all seems too good to be true to me."

"Ah. Well." Said Chris, seeming to be floundering a bit, "there is just one small problem. We need you there by Monday morning. There have been a few problems there which have all come to light recently and the sooner someone who knows what they're doing installs some order round there the better it will be."

Rose raised her eyebrows. "And you think I can be the person to sort them out?" She asked him with a note of disbelief in her voice, "You're sure?"

Chris just nodded. "I've got every faith in you." He told her honestly. "Now take tomorrow off, spend some time with your family, get yourself packed up, sort out anything else you need to do, and we'll let them know to expect you on Monday. Good Luck."

He winked at her before rising from the chair and shaking her hand, "It's been a pleasure working with you Rose," He told her, "I hope you enjoy your time in Cardiff. Keep in touch won't you – we're always here if you need us." With that he turned and left the office, leaving Rose to pack up her things and tidy her office for the last time.

It was over two hours later that Rose finally arrived home having cleaned her office from top to bottom. For some reason she hated the thought of leaving it un-cleaned for whoever it was who took her job. As she walked through the door she was met by the smell of Jackie's shepherds pie wafting through from the kitchen and the sounds of Jamie's delighted cries from the lounge as he played with his Dad. Leaving the box of things she'd brought home from work in the hallway she followed the smell into the Kitchen to find her Mum just dishing up the dinner.

"Hello love. How was work?" Jackie asked her daughter when she spied her hovering in the door way.

Rose smiled as she moved in to give her Mum a hug. "It wasn't bad." She told her, "I've got some news for you and Dad – I'll tell you over dinner."

"Tell us what?" asked Pete from behind her while putting Jamie down on the floor. Jamie immediately flung himself at his sister's legs and squealed delightedly as she bent down and picked him up, swinging him into her arms.

Jackie put four plates down on the table and Rose put Jamie into his high chair before sitting down herself. When they were all sitting in front of a plate of food Pete asked again. "What was it you wanted to tell us Sweetheart?"

Rose took a deep breath before opening her mouth to tell them, "I've been promoted." She said with a smile on her face.

There was no denying the proud looks that appeared on both Jackie and Pete's faces.

"That's wonderful Darling!" Jackie told her. "So come on, tell us all about it!"

Rose grinned. So far, so good. She just hoped her Mum would be as enthusiastic when she found out the promotion entailed a move to Cardiff.

"Well Chris – my boss – just offered me it this evening. Apparently one of the division heads at one of the regional offices just left under a cloud of smoke. No one in the team there has much experience with things so he thinks I'm the best one for the job. He trusts me to bring things back on track and knows that I've got the knowledge to sort them out. I start on Monday."

"Well that's wonderful isn't it Jacks!" Said Pete proudly, "You deserve it Love!"

Jackie meanwhile was still stuck at the beginning of Rose's explanation. "Regional Office?" She asked suspiciously, "And just where might this regional office be?"

Rose rolled her eyes. She'd expected some resistance from her Mum but she knew just which buttons to press to make her give in.

"It's just Cardiff Mum. A couple of hours away by train, straight down the motorway, I can still see you every weekend if you want. I'm not even leaving the UK. Nothing needs to change except the living arrangements. I'll even call you every night if you want. Promise."

Jackie just sighed seeing the pleading expression on her daughter's face. Rose really wanted this – she could tell. "When are you going?" She asked.

Rose just grinned again. At 23 years of age she was fluent in Jackie speak and she took the question as her mothers assent that she was ok with it. "I start on Monday." She told them. "Thought I'd take tomorrow to pack and head up there on Saturday. That way I've got the weekend to settle in before I start at the office on Monday."

"Sounds like a good idea." Her Dad agreed. "Who's for a celebratory glass of wine?"

The next morning Rose enjoyed a rare lie in. She'd stayed up late last night talking to her Mum and Dad over a bottle of wine. It was a rare occasion that the three of them spent time together like that and she'd enjoyed chatting to them about things. When she'd gone to bed she'd decided to look over the file on Torchwood Cardiff. It was a gripping read and she'd stayed up until the early hours of the morning learning everything there was to know about the team she was moving into.

The office for the Cardiff branch of Torchwood was located in an underground hub in Cardiff Bay, which Rose remembered in the other universe was right on top of the Rift. The front door to the office was hidden behind the legitimate guise of a gift shop, tucked away in back alley which people rarely passed down.

The last Division head there had been a woman called Suzie Costello. She'd been there quite a few years and had slowly worked her way up from the bottom. As she'd climbed the ladder through the ranks she had become more and more obsessed with the job, a dangerous situation for any one to be in. Eventually she had gone too far and in an effort to ensure her team were the best she'd begun engineering dangerous situations just to test her team and find out how good they were at sorting things. Her behaviour had been putting the public in danger and quite a few people had died as a result of her actions. Eventually one of her team had contacted a friend in London and Chris Jones had sent a team out to sort things out. Costello had chosen to take her own life rather than face the consequences of her actions.

The team itself was small. 4 people in all plus her. The first was Toshiko Sato. She was a computer expert who had moved to Cardiff from London a few years before. Ianto Jones was the organiser of the group. He looked after the gift shop and took responsibility for making sure the team had all the things they needed. Then there was Owen Harper, the groups' medic and finally Gwen Cooper who had only recently joined the team having been hand picked by Costello for her ingenuity and inquisitiveness.

Rose decided she was looking forward to meeting them all. They sounded a good bunch and from the reports she had seen obviously worked well together. Hopefully they wouldn't be too put out by all that had happened and would be open to her introduction to the team.

Sighing Rose made a decision. Chris had told her he needed her there by Monday. Excitement was setting in about going now so she thought it might be nice to pack up the stuff she'd need for the next week or so and head up there tonight. She could go into the office in the morning that way and get herself familiarised with it all, then she'd be completely ready to start work properly on Monday. Next weekend she'd come home and pick up more of her stuff. Right now, it was time to get up and think about packing. Rolling over she sat up and looked around the room. Maybe she'd start after breakfast.

The train from Paddington to Cardiff was jam packed. She realised her mistake within seconds of boarding the train. Friday afternoon was the time for commuters to head home for the weekend. As a result she spent most of the journey standing crammed up against the luggage rack. It wasn't TARDIS travel by any stretch of the imagination but it was an adventure none the less. The first day of her next adventure in life, that was how she was going to look at it. It was time she got her life back in hand and moved on. She couldn't spend the rest of her life moping and checking every side street for signs of the familiar blue Police Box as she walked past them. She would never forget the Doctor or how much he meant to her but whilst she'd been packing things earlier the realisation had hit her. He once told her to 'have a fantastic life'. Do it for him, that's what he asked of her. Well, that's what she intended to do. Whether he'd know about it or not she was going to have a fantastic life. She was going to put 150 into everything she did from now on and she was going to do it all for him. It was time to close that chapter of her life and open the next, the chapter where she made something of herself. She had a good feeling about Cardiff.

It was shortly after 9pm when Rose arrived at her new home. She looked around the apartment in awe – it was truly amazing. There were two bedrooms. The smaller one had obviously been used as a study by the apartment's previous occupant. Rose thought this was a good idea since there was no-one else who was going to be living with her. The master bedroom was enormous with large fitted wardrobes covering one wall and a plush queen size bed right in the middle of the room. A door at the back of the room led of to the en-suite bathroom which was just as magnificent as the bedroom. Decked out in soft pink furnishings it was elegant yet homely. A spacious corner bath sat in one corner of the room whilst a roomy shower cubicle stood in another. There was enough cupboard space in there to suit even her mother – it was a woman's haven!

Leaving her bags on the bed Rose moved to look round the rest of the flat. It had an open plan living space which was coloured in pale yellows, pinks, blues and creams. The Kitchen, which had all the necessary furnishings and was even fully stocked with all the essentials she'd need to live on until she could get to the local supermarket, opened out into the spacious dining room which in turn opened onto the lounge. The lounge itself was gorgeous. The sofa was the sort that swallowed you when you sat down and Rose could see that she was going to spend a lot of time sitting in this room enjoying the comfort. There was a modestly sized wide-screen television along one wall and a stereo on the unit at the back of the room. The entrance hall was off to the right.

Taking another look around the apartment Rose grinned. She was definitely going to like it here. It wasn't until she yawned that she realised how tired she was. Travelling did that to a person she supposed, although travelling with the Doctor had never been so tiring. Well, she thought, best unpack and get to bed. Tomorrow was a big day after all.

Rose was disorientated at first when she awoke the following morning. She wasn't used to waking up in strange beds and took her a few minutes to remember where she was and why. When she did she smiled to herself happily. She was in her own bed in her own apartment and she was about to start day one of the rest of her life. Throwing back the covers she winced slightly. It was bloody cold in Cardiff she decided. Still, that was a good excuse to go shopping for some new warmer clothes and pyjamas. Pulling on her dressing gown Rose padded through to the kitchen and put the kettle on. A nice cup of tea was what she needed. It was, after all, the best way to start the day. Putting two slices of bread in the toaster a tea bag in a mug from the cupboard Rose mentally made her action plan for the day. After she'd had her tea and toast she'd get dressed and then she'd head out to the office. It wasn't far and she thought she'd managed to memorise the route on the train the day before so she'd be fine walking it. It would be nice to see some of the city too, she thought, since it was to be her new home now.

The kettle boiled pulling Rose from her thoughts and she made her tea just how she liked it – milk, no sugar. As the toast popped she grabbed a plate from the cupboard and the butter from the fridge and quickly spread the butter onto the warm toast watching it melt in. She smiled slightly as she realised that there was no one here to tell her not to eat on the sofa and she took her breakfast through to the lounge, flicking on the TV as she sat down. She watched the news whilst she had her breakfast, happily noting that there was nothing going on in the world aside from the usual politicians behaving badly and celebrity scandals. Polishing off the last mouthful of toast and downing the dregs of her tea she got up and headed back into the kitchen. She'd just wash up these pots and then she'd get dressed and head into work.

Rose winced at the bitter temperature as she wandered down the street. If she was right about her location, and she thought that she was, the back door to the office should be just around the next corner. It had only taken her 5 minutes to get this far but the weather really was awful. She just hoped that the summer in this place made up for the awful winters, either that or that she had just caught the city on an off day. The second would be the more preferable of the two. Triumphantly Rose rounded the corner to discover she had been spot on with her navigating. The small and non-descript gift shop stood ahead of her. Pulling her coat tighter around herself Rose headed towards the door in determination.

As she entered the shop she looked around herself. It was certainly a very convincing cover up. The walls were lined with leaflets in both Welsh and English which welcomed people to the city and advised on various things to do whilst you were visiting. Newspaper clippings from both local and national papers were plastered behind the counter and they told of all sorts of feats that had happened in recent times in the city from the annual November fairground to the desertion of the City's mayor. The shop was so clean it seemed almost clinical. The walls were whitewashed and everything sparkled at her as if it had only recently been polished.

She was just beginning to wonder if perhaps no one worked Saturdays round here when a door behind the counter opened and a man walked into the office. He was fairly tall and had dark hair and striking features. Rose recognised him immediately from the file she'd been given as Ianto Jones. She opened her mouth to introduce herself to him but he got there first.

"I'm sorry to keep you waiting Madam." He told her, "I do hope you haven't been here long. How can I help?" He asked.

Rose smiled as she realised that he thought she was a customer. Obviously they'd been given no-where near as much information on her as she's been given on them. Pulling her ID card out of her pocket ready to show him she decided to introduce herself.

"My name's Rose Tyler." She started, handing him her card, "I've just transferred up here from the London office."

He took the card looking over it critically. She noted that there was a touch of hostility in the way he regarded her and prepared herself to get shooed out of the door. To her surprise that wasn't what happened although she was no more comfortable with his next phrase.

"Yes, we have been expecting you." He told her whilst handing back her card. "Although we weren't expecting you until Monday." Rose didn't notice him pressing a button underneath the desk as he spoke to her. "Is there any reason why you're here two days early?"

Rose was slightly taken aback at the tone of his voice as he asked the last question and as such it took her a few seconds to work out how to answer it. Eventually she came up with something,

"I thought I'd come in today and introduce myself, that way we can jump straight into the work on Monday morning." She told him, trying to sound confident despite the niggling worry she now had that something wasn't quite right.

Ianto just gave her a forced smile.

"Well in that case why don't I take you down to meet the rest of the team?" He asked her.

For some reason Rose got the feeling that Ianto's last comment had not been addressed to her but to someone else entirely…..

Rose took very careful note of the route they were taking to get to the office. She had been most surprised when Ianto had pressed a button on the counter and made a section of the wall disappear. He'd locked the door to the shop before ushering her into the corridor behind the wall. The corridors themselves were just like the shop had been. Clean whitewashed walls made the place feel awfully like a hospital and for a moment she was drawn into the memory of the hospital on New Earth and all the horrors hidden behind the sterile hospital environment. She shuddered as she thought of what these walls might be hiding and found herself fighting back a wave of panic at the thought of what she was walking into. Up until now she had been excited about this job, now she was just wondering what she had let herself in for and was wishing she was back in London where she felt safe.

As they stepped into a lift which Ianto told her would take her into 'The Hub' she found that she couldn't stop the old instincts from kicking in. There was something wrong here, that much she was sure of, and behind the worry she could feel the familiar stirrings of excitement. She'd missed all this, the anticipation and the danger which had made life with the Doctor so fantastic.

As the lift came to a stop and the doors began to open she prepared herself for whatever was on the other side waiting for her. At first she was slightly disappointed to discover that nothing jumped out at her as being an immediate threat. The room itself was every bit as clinical as the rest of the things she had seen so far. Everything was white and was clean, sparkling in the bright, artificial light from overhead. It was a far cry from the dingy place she had been expecting based on the location of the office. Being located underground was hardly conducive to such bright light, Rose thought. The team themselves were all sat round a table in the corner of the room. Ianto led her over to them.

"Here she is." He said to the rest of the team, not even looking at her. "I'll get back up to the shop now." And with that said he turned and headed back to the lift leaving Rose wondering why he'd even bothered to escort her down here in the first place.

Turning to the rest of the team Rose smiled warmly.

"Rose Tyler." She introduced herself to them cheerily.

She received nothing more than a nod from each of them sat round the table and a brief thought flitted through her head that it was a good job she'd read the files properly before coming in because they were obviously not planning on introducing themselves to her. She looked round the table, mentally putting names to the faces she could see there. Toshiko Sato was sat at the far end of the table. She looked oriental in origin and had long dark hair scraped back into a pony tail. Opposite Toshiko was the man whom she had identified as Owen Harper. He had a sort of unconventional charm and good looks about him – Rose couldn't tell what it was but there was just something that made her sure that he never had difficulty getting any woman he wanted. Finally there was Gwen Cooper. She was sat closest to Rose and had shoulder length dark hair which was shaped around her face and sat loosely on her shoulders. Rose could see from looking at her that she was a little uncomfortable with whatever it was Rose had walked in on and decided to file that information away and analyse it later. Gwen was the newest team member. If there were any problems here she'd be the easiest one to get on side.

Looking at them and forcing a smile onto her face despite the ever increasing anticipation she was feeling Rose decided to find some words and speak.

"So, what are you working on at the moment?" She asked them, hoping to start up a conversation.

It was Owen who answered her, smiling as he did so although it was not a smile that made Rose comfortable.

"Well recently we've been working on harnessing power from the rift and converting it into a useable energy source. We're making some quite steady progress. Would you like to see?" He asked her.

Rose took a few seconds to process what he was saying. So there was a tempo-spatial rift in this universe too? That was interesting to know. But should they really be playing with it like this? It probably wasn't wise. None the less she was curious.

"Sure, sounds interesting." She told them eagerly, "how far have you got?"

"Well," Gwen told her, "we can open up some sort of energy field here in the office but so far we can't work out how to use it. We've tried a few things but nothing that's worked as yet. We were just thinking about what to try next when you showed up."

Toshiko was, at this point, rushing around the office collecting bits of equipment and setting them up on the table top. Rose missed the conspiratory looks her and Owen shared as Gwen told her about all the various human and alien devices they'd tried using to harness the rift energy.

After a few minutes Toshiko announced that everything was ready to go and suggested that Rose may want to stand back so as to stay out of the way of the energy field. Rose did as suggested and moved to stand by Gwen and Owen as Toshiko powered up the machine. The machine growled and whirred and Rose watched in awe as a swirling blue portal opened up in the centre of the office. It took only seconds for Roses awe to turn to worry as she realised that this was not an energy field but was in fact the rift opening. It may just be a small hole but it was enough to be a potential problem. She turned to the rest of the team to tell them to close it down and was shocked to notice them already preparing to try harnessing the energy with another device. It was with shock that she realised she knew what that device was and she had acted before she realised what she was doing.

She moved to stand in front of the portal defiantly as she addressed them.

"No!" She said firmly. "Stop what you're doing."

Owen and Toshiko ignored her, continuing to prepare to try and harness the energy. Gwen looked at her.

"Why?" She asked, "What's the problem with it?"

Rose looked at her with panic in her eyes.

"That device you've got there." She told her. "It's an extrapolator. To be more precise it's a _Tribophysical waveform macro kinetic extrapolator_ You absolutely cannot let it interact with the rift. It could tear the planet in two. I can't let you do it!"

"Fine." Owen shrugged, disconnecting the extrapolator and tossing it over in his hands before looking up and straight into her eyes. With a smirk he continued, "Catch."

With a malicious grin he threw the extrapolator across the room, straight towards her and the opening in the rift.

Everything went into slow motion at that point. The extrapolator was flying high towards her and Rose could se she wasn't going to be able to catch it. As it flew over her head Rose raised her arms into the air and took a step backwards, her fingers catching the edge of the extrapolator changing its path. The extrapolator fell away to the side, now safely clear of the rift. Rose didn't notice the object which was on the floor behind her right foot. The first she knew of it was when her heel caught it and she realised she was falling. Things slowed even further then. She saw the satisfaction in the eyes of Owen and Toshiko and the horror in Gwen's face showing the young woman knew nothing of her colleagues' plans. Finally, as she fell into the rift, every thing went dark.


	2. Trouble'saBrewing

A/N: Well, right. I know I've been promising this for a while but in all honesty I've been snowed under. The amount of work I have to do seems to be multiplying by the hour – it's almost as if there's a breeding program going on under my bed! Just know that I'm still working on this when I get a chance and if things are slow going now I promise to get my backside in gear once I'm done with Uni for the year in a few weeks time.

Chapter Two – Trouble's-a-Brewing

"Not again! This is really beginning to get ridiculous. It's the third time today that's happened and it's not even lunch time!" Owen Harper was not what you would call a 'happy bunny'. In fact he was far from happy. It was 11am on Sunday Morning – a time which should not, in his opinion, exist – and he was stuck at work doing an autopsy on someone's pet cat because the stupid animal had been thick enough to get in the way of a hungry Weevil and Jack thought that studying the cat could give them insight into the eating habits of Weevils. If that wasn't enough to piss him off already there was something weird going on in the hub. Three times that morning he'd been hit by flying pieces of junk – a tennis ball, a biro and, strangely, an odd sock – however he knew they weren't thrown by any of the team. This had been going on for a while now. At first it was just on the odd occasion, no more than once a week. That soon became once a day and now it was happening continuously throughout the day.

"Jack. We need to do something." Owen stated bluntly, throwing down the scalpel he had been using in his irritation. "We can't work like this – not when we have to keep ducking flying objects."

"He's right Jack." Tosh agreed. "Do you know how much highly sensitive equipment there is round here? Sooner or later there's going to be some irreparable damage done by something flying through the air."

Jack sighed and nodded in agreement. "You're right. We do need to do something." Hesitating for a second he looked around the office taking in the scene before him. Tosh and Gwen had both erected makeshift shields around their desk space to protect themselves from things flying through the office whilst Ianto had taken to walking as close to the wall as possible and staying alert ready to duck at a moments notice and Owen had taken to keeping a crash helmet close by as if threatening to wear it. Making a decision he addressed the team.

"Who's for lunch?" He asked them cheerily, "My shout – you all deserve it. When we've eaten we can come back here and set our minds to working out what's going on in this place."

No one argued. Getting out of the hub for a while sounded like a good plan all round. Gwen and Tosh grabbed their bags and Owen removed his grubby overalls. Looking around to check the airspace was clear the five of them made a dash for the lift in the middle of the room. Time to get out of here for an hour or so. Some time spent where there were no low flying tennis balls would do them all the world of good.

Jack leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. This meeting was taking far too long. The pizza had run out over an hour ago, all the local takeaways were getting ready to close and he'd already far exceeded his weekly, if not monthly, caffeine allowance. He looked around the rest of his team, taking in the state they seemed to be in and assessing how much longer they could go on for before they started to drop. Gwen was leaning forward in her seat, chin resting on her hands in a gesture which, were it not for the unearthly time of night, would appear to indicate her interest in the subject at hand. As it happened all it served to do was leave her sitting in a position which, whilst not uncomfortable, was awkward enough that she would not be likely to fall asleep anytime soon.

Opposite Gwen sat Tosh, who was doing a good job of trying to look interested with a pen in her hand and a pad of paper in front of her. Jack chuckled to himself mentally – it was a nice try but Jack was well aware of the fact that Tosh only ever took notes using electronic means and the pad in front of her was merely there for her to doodle on. Next to Gwen was Owen. Unlike the women he was making no attempt to look even slightly interested or awake and sat slouched down low in his chair, eyelids drooping every now and again. Jack couldn't help but notice that once in a while, when his eyelids had drooped and his breathing begun to even out indicating the he was falling asleep, that Gwen would discreetly give him a kick under the table jolting him awake again.

Finally there was Ianto. Unlike the rest of the team Ianto was not seated at the table but was instead to be found at the coffee machine at the back of the room getting a caffeine fix ready for them. Good old Ianto, thought Jack, always ready and waiting with a freshly brewed pot of coffee in the teams time of need. Shaking himself out of his stupor Jack opened his mouth to say something (he really wasn't sure what) to try and wake his team up.

"OK guys, I know it's late, we've had a long day and we're all tired and we want to go home but the sooner we get this sorted the sooner we can go home to our nice warm beds. So, once more from the top, what do we know about the latest rift activity?"

In retrospect, thought Jack, that really wasn't very inspirational. All he'd done was ask them to repeat the same useless information they'd been telling him over and over for the past 8 hours. Really he should have called an end to this meeting hours ago. Perhaps it would have been a good time after Owen had called Tosh a 'prudish bigot' following the argument over her sex life (and Jack was still trying to work out how that fitted in to the subject of the rift – he'd long ago given up trying to keep up with Tosh and Owen when they were arguing.) As it stood it was now nearing 10pm and they were no nearer a solution than they had been when they'd sat down that afternoon.

Their problem was quite obvious to anyone who came into the hub. The rift was growing increasingly unstable but not in a way that could be considered natural. Normally when things came through the rift it was random. They showed up all over South Wales. And as far as anyone could tell the progress through the rift was gradual – things faded into existence as they emerged. Recently however, there had been a surge in rift activity confined inside the hub. This was different though, far from fading into being things would just appear. Often there was a sort of ripple around the things as they appeared. As if they were being pushed through a hole that shouldn't be there and the fabric of time and space was pinging back into shape as the object passed through. The things showing up were strange too. Footballs, odd shoes, ping pong balls, even empty crisp packets. It was almost as if someone was intentionally passing things through, conducting some sort of experiment maybe.

"You know it's almost like someone is intentionally forcing these things through the rift." Said Tosh thoughtfully.

Jack blinked. "Tosh if I didn't know better I'd say you still had that pendant of yours. I was just thinking the same thing!" He grinned at her.

For a second Tosh looked flustered as if she wasn't sure whether that was a joke or an accusation. Seeing the look of ease on Jack's face she was reassured that he wasn't accusing her of anything and felt she could go on to explain her observations.

"We know that it's possible to control the rift. We've done it before to some extent – we just don't know how to do it 'safely'." She emphasised the word 'safely', looking at no-one in particular as she spoke. The memory of what had happened the last time they interfered with the rift was still fresh in everyone's mind. Taking a deep breath she continued. "But what if someone somewhere else thinks they have worked it out. What if all this is some sort of experiment that someone is conducting into controlling the rift?" As she spoke her voice was getting more and more excited until at the end Jack could see she was practically bouncing in her seat. Although, Jack conceded that was likely to be due mainly to the time of night and the amount of caffeine they had all consumed. He had to admit though that she had a point and the more he thought about it the more sense it made.

"It's a good theory," He told her smiling, "and more than likely bang on the money. We know that the rift is a fault line in time and space. Our problem now is how do we stop it? It could be anyone from anywhere doing these things. We can't trust that sooner or later these things coming through won't cease being harmless bits of junk and start being big problems. We have enough on our hands cleaning up the dangers that slip through by accident without having to now keep an eye on what people are sending through for the sheer hell of it!"

He sighed. It was too late for this. Looking around at his team again he made a decision. "Right guys. Go home. Go to bed. I'll see you in the morning."

There were shocked looks all round. Anticipating their questions Jack continued. "We've been at it for over 8 hours. I don't know about you lot but my brain is like mush. Go home, sleep on it and we'll come back to it fresh in the morning and see if anyone has any ideas then. Now go on, get out of here before I change my mind!" With that said Jack rose to his feet and crossed to the balcony heading for his office. As soon as the team were gone he'd review the CCTV footage and see if it gave him any ideas for how to reverse these experiments.

The team watched Jack close his office door in curiosity. It wasn't like him to give up part way through a meeting without deciding on some sort of action plan. He'd been acting out of character for a while now, ever since the incident with Billis and the Beast. They couldn't help but worry about him. After all, he didn't have anyone else that they knew of and someone needed to keep an eye on him and his moods.

With a last look to the closed office door Ianto decided it was time to give Jack the privacy he seemed to be after.

"Right guys." He said, addressing the team, "time we were off. Jack was right, I'm exhausted."

The others murmured agreement to him and together they grabbed their things and headed off towards the lift in the centre of the room. They hadn't gotten far however when there was a ripple of blue right in front of them and something appeared on the floor of the Hub. Gwen was the first to recognise it and react.

"Oh My God!" She exclaimed, her hand going to her mouth in disbelief. She rushed over to the thing lying crumpled on the floor, dropping to her knees as she reached it. Gently reaching out a hand she pulled the thing on the floor over slightly so that the rest of the team could see.

"It's a person." Tosh whispered in disbelief, "a young woman. Is she hurt?"

Gwen reached out slowly to check the woman's pulse and see if she was ok but before she could Jack's voice rang out across the room,

"Don't touch her Gwen!" Jack came running down the stairs from his office taking them two at a time. "You don't know who she is, where she's come from. For all you know she isn't even human. Just because she looks like us doesn't mean…." He trailed off, stopping dead in his tracks. His face froze into a look of shock and disbelief.

"Jack, you alright?" Asked Owen, "What were you saying?"

Jack just shook his head and took a few small steps forward towards Gwen and the woman on the ground. When he was close enough he dropped to his knees just as Gwen had before him and picked up the woman's hand. Gwen noticed that there were tears in his eyes and couldn't help but voice the questions in everyone's head.

"Jack? What is it? Do you know her? Who is she?" She asked, concern evident in the tone she used.

Jack shook his head, opening and closing his mouth like goldfish. The only response he could formulate being three words whispered so quietly the team almost missed them.

"But it's impossible."


End file.
